1. Field of the Invention
Exemplary aspects of the present invention relate to an image forming apparatus, an image forming system, and a recording medium, and more particularly, to an image forming apparatus, an image forming system, and a recording medium for properly performing sample print output.
2. Description of the Related Art
A related-art image forming apparatus, such as a copier, a facsimile machine, a printer, or a multifunction printer having two or more of copying, printing, scanning, and facsimile functions, forms a toner image on a transfer material (e.g., a transfer sheet) according to image data by electrophotography. For example, a charger charges a surface of a photoconductor. An optical writer emits a light beam onto the charged surface of the photoconductor to form an electrostatic latent image on the photoconductor according to the image data. A development device develops the electrostatic latent image with a developer (e.g., toner) to form a toner image on the photoconductor. The toner image is then transferred from the photoconductor onto a transfer sheet. A fixing device applies heat and pressure to the transfer sheet bearing the toner image to fix the toner image on the sheet.
With recent advances such image forming apparatuses (e.g., digital copiers and laser printers) have gained improved speed and endurance, making mass-printing possible. However, an increase in frequency of printing may cause faster deterioration of such parts of the image forming apparatus as a photoconductor, a feed roller, a conveyance roller and the like, resulting in deterioration in print image quality over time. Therefore, in order to provide stable high-quality printing, such image quality needs to be checked regularly with a predetermined frequency. Conventionally, this regular checking is accomplished by the image forming apparatus interrupting a current print job so that a user may visually check the image quality of a printed sheet.
One related-art image forming apparatus includes a surface imaging device for taking an image of the printed sheet and a display device for displaying the image taken by the surface imaging device, so that a user may visually check a state of an image formed on the printed sheet and a state of a stored transfer sheet. However, the surface imaging device is typically a CCD (charge coupled device) camera and the display device a liquid crystal display, resulting in high cost. Moreover, although the user can confirm the image taken by the surface imaging device of the image forming apparatus, the user cannot confirm an actual image printed on the sheet.
Another known related-art image forming apparatus has a sample print function for printing a set of printed sheets as a sample print. When the related-art image forming apparatus performs a sample print before starting a print job, a user visually checks an actual image printed on the sheet as a sample and then determines whether or not to start the print job. However, in order to do so the user needs to interrupt a printing operation in order to check the actual image printed on the sheet, resulting in decreased productivity especially in mass-printing. In addition, the user does not need a whole set of printed sheets, but merely needs one arbitrary sheet to check the quality of the image printed on the sheet.
Obviously, such decreased productivity due to interruption of a printing operation is undesirable, and accordingly, there is a need for a technology to efficiently check the quality of an image printed on a sheet.